Call to Action on the Farm Bill by the Illinois Stewardship Alliance

Wondering what has been going on with The Farm Bill? The Illinois Stewardship Alliance has been tracking its progress or should I say the lack of progress. This call to action email was sent out by Wes King, Policy Director of ISA.

“As you already know if you’ve been following farm bill news, the 2012 Farm Bill is currently stalled in Congress. Meanwhile, the 2008 bill – the one guiding current farm policy – expired on September 30, leaving dozens of programs high and dry with no funding.

Here at Illinois Stewardship Alliance we think this is unacceptable – and we need your help holding Congress accountable. As a member of the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, we’re taking action later this month. The House and Senate are coming back to D.C. in mid-November for their “lame duck” post-election session, and this is our last chance to call for a farm bill this year – one that invests in the future of healthy farms, food, and people; protects our natural resources; and makes long-overdue reforms to farm subsidies and levels the playing field for family farmers.

To make this happen, we’re planning something big: a major grassroots petition opening on Food Day (October 24) and culminating in a coordinated call-in day on November 15 to drive the message home. We want to reach a million people with our message – and aim for at least 50,000 signatures, leading into thousands of follow-up calls into Congress. We want to make a powerful statement to Congress that these issues matter for farmers and citizens across the country!

The message: “We need a better farm bill, and we need it this year! An equitable, sustainable, 21st century farm bill must:

- INVEST IN THE FUTURE OF HEALTHY FARMS, FOOD, and PEOPLE

- PROTECT OUR PRECIOUS AIR, SOIL, and WATER

- REFORM FARM SUBSIDIES and LEVEL THE PLAYING FIELD”

Food and farm organizations across the country are signing on to help spread the word about the petition and day of action – will you join us? There are a host of ways to help – including simply spreading the word about the petition and day of action to committing to make a call yourself and encouraging others to call on our November 15 day of action. We have all sorts of materials – like sample emails, handouts and graphics for facebook – that we can share!”

If you have interest in joining in on their efforts, you can sign up for their email list here, if you would like to organize your own group, contact Wes King at the ISA, his contact information is on their website.